Story of the Piece: The World Beneath

There is a lot more to see here than what you see at first glance!

A shape in the darkness. A glint of reflected light. A vine crossing through. Something that might be a leaf, a shadow, a hollow in a fallen log.

Then you look again.

The World Below is built around that moment — the moment your eyes begin to adjust and a hidden world reveals itself. It is not about seeing everything immediately. It is about slowing down long enough to notice.

Built layer by layer with texture, paint, sculptural elements and glass resin, the work changes as light moves across its surface. Details appear, disappear and return from another angle. A hollow log becomes visible. Tiny fungi emerge. A small frog waits quietly inside. Nothing announces itself. You have to find it.

This is not a painting of a rainforest floor. It is the feeling of looking into one - where decay, growth, shadow and life are all happening at once, whether you notice them or not.

Created in Far North Queensland as part of the Obsidian Worlds series, The World Below continues my exploration of black as a beginning rather than an absence. Black holds the world together. Light reveals what was already there.